MotoGP

Yamaha in control as Vinales completes Friday Aragon sweep

by Matt Beer
3 min read

Maverick Vinales completed a sweep of MotoGP Friday practice by topping the afternoon session, as Yamaha dominated again.

Having locked out the top spots on a colder track in the morning, the three Yamahas picked up where they left off in FP2, all three surpassing Vinales’ FP1 effort in virtually no time.

But it was only Franco Morbidelli who managed to dip below the 1m49s barrier on that opening run, this putting him two tenths clear of his Yamaha stablemates and five tenths clear of the best of the rest – Honda rider Alex Marquez.

Suzuki rider Joan Mir ventured out on a fresh pair of soft tyres a few minutes later, immediately overhauling the Yamahas and then improving to a 1m48.688s to establish a lead of three tenths – which would soon be halved by Vinales.

With 11 minutes to go, Quartararo restored Yamaha’s advantage by posting a 1m48.406s, before improving by another two tenths with his next attempt.

But this wasn’t nearly enough to secure the top spot, with Vinales soon uncorking a superb 1m47.771s to demote the championship leader to second place.

Quartararo improved at the chequered flag but was still a quarter of a second down on Vinales, while Morbidelli was a further two tenths down to complete another Yamaha 1-2-3.

Mir, who was briefly incensed by traffic in the form of Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci, ended up as best of the rest, albeit more than seven-tenths down on Vinales.

LCR rider Cal Crutchlow was the top fifth for Honda, ahead of the Espargaro brothers – with Aleix leading Pol after having followed Vinales on his fastest lap.

Factory Honda rider Alex Marquez completed what was probably his best Friday practice showing in MotoGP so far by moving up to eighth at the chequered flag, with LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami making it three Hondas in the top nine, and Suzuki’s Alex Rins completing the top 10.

It was another pale showing by Ducati, with none of its riders making the top 10 and Avintia’s two 2019-spec bikes beating all four of the factory-spec machines.

This was despite Avintia rider Johann Zarco crashing at Turn 2 late on, becoming the third faller of the session after Brad Binder (KTM) fell at Turn 14 and Stefan Bradl (Honda) hit the deck at Turn 12.

It was announced that FP3, which will determine who secures the automatic spots for Q2, would start 30 minutes later than originally scheduled on Saturday morning, after Friday’s morning practice had to be postponed by half an hour due to the track surface being too cold for the Michelin tyres.

Practice 2 Results

Pos Name Team Bike Gap Next Gap Leader Best Time
1 Maverick Viñales Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 1m47.771s
2 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha +0.249s +0.249s 1m48.02s
3 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha +0.198s +0.447s 1m48.218s
4 Joan Mir Team Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +0.283s +0.73s 1m48.501s
5 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda +0.097s +0.827s 1m48.598s
6 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia +0.072s +0.899s 1m48.67s
7 Pol Espargaró Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.076s +0.975s 1m48.746s
8 Alex Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda +0.077s +1.052s 1m48.823s
9 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda +0.001s +1.053s 1m48.824s
10 Alex Rins Team Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +0.015s +1.068s 1m48.839s
11 Johann Zarco Avintia Racing Ducati +0.067s +1.135s 1m48.906s
12 Tito Rabat Avintia Racing Ducati +0.097s +1.232s 1m49.003s
13 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Team Ducati +0.012s +1.244s 1m49.015s
14 Jack Miller Pramac Racing Ducati +0.011s +1.255s 1m49.026s
15 Danilo Petrucci Ducati Team Ducati +0.081s +1.336s 1m49.107s
16 Iker Lecuona Red Bull KTM Tech 3 KTM +0.058s +1.394s 1m49.165s
17 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Tech 3 KTM +0.043s +1.437s 1m49.208s
18 Bradley Smith Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia +0.05s +1.487s 1m49.258s
19 Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Racing Ducati +0.23s +1.717s 1m49.488s
20 Stefan Bradl Repsol Honda Team Honda +0.603s +2.32s 1m50.091s
21 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.153s +2.473s 1m50.244s
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